Such a mechanism for the display of several mutually different pieces of time information including several information carriers, on each of which appears one of said pieces of time information, is conventionally used in mechanical timepieces to display, on the dial, various pieces of time information, such as the date, the time in different time zones, phases of the moon, etc. . . .
This information is displayed by means of different apertures or symbols distributed over the timepiece dial. Once the timepiece is assembled, the position of the various pieces of information displayed on the dial is immutable, so that it is impossible to modify the appearance of the dial.
Further, all of the pieces of time information consistently appear although the user does not necessarily desire the display thereof.
Further, each information carrier and its actuation mechanism occupy a considerable amount of space underneath the dial, so that the dial and movement are very cluttered, leaving no room for other displays or other mechanisms.
One solution for overcoming this problem was proposed in EP Patent No 1922591 which discloses the use of one or two rotating indicators kinematically connected to cams to “update” the indicators when the associated cams are selected according to the selected type of information to be displayed. The cam is selected by means of a finger-piece which moves in translation to read the information on the cam and transmit it to the associated indicator to “update” it. However, in this display mechanism, the indicators are fixed behind an aperture so that the appearance of the dial cannot be changed. Further, the indicators used are the same regardless of the type of information to be displayed. This means that the information to be displayed must be of the same type.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to overcome these drawbacks by proposing a display mechanism which makes it possible to select the time information to be displayed.
It is another object of the present invention to propose a display mechanism that makes it possible to display different pieces of time information in the same place on the dial, leaving space available for other displays or mechanisms.